Despite being in office for the past four months, the AAP-led Delhi Government seems to have forgotten about a major poll promise — of making the national Capital self-reliant in power generation, as it is yet to send a formal proposal to the Union Coal Ministry for seeking a coal block.
Sources in the Ministry confirmed to The Pioneer that the Centre has not received any request from the Delhi Government towards seeking a coal block.
The Arvind Kejriwal Government had announced the intention of doubling power generation in Delhi from 2,000 mW to 4,000 mW by setting up a coal-based power plant in another State, when it had assumed power in February this year. For this purpose it had spoken about seeking a coal block from Coal Ministry on a priority basis.
Subsequently in March, Delhi Power Minister Satyendra Jain met his counterpart at the Centre, Piyush Goyal, who in fact had given an assurance that the Delhi Government’s request would be looked into favourably.
More than two months have passed since that meeting, but no proposal for seeking a coal block has been sent by the Delhi Government to the Union Coal Ministry.
The Coal Ministry while announcing the coal blocks auction process in December last year, had made it clear that as far as public sector undertakings (PSUs) are concerned, they would be directly allotted blocks depending on the urgency of their situation.
In the first round which had taken place in March this year, 38 blocks had been allotted to PSUs which are involved in the power sector. Sources privy to the development said that though the second round of allotment of coal blocks is yet to start, the Coal Ministry has still not received any request from Delhi Government, seeking a coal block.
Though Jain soon after meeting Goyal in March had said that the Delhi Government’s aim is to look at short-term as well as long-term solutions for the city’s power crisis, building up Delhi’s internal generation is part of its long term plan.
He had also said that the Centre was supportive of their proposal and Delhi Government is hoping to have a coal-based power plant in the next four to five years.
According to the Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi’s peak demand has doubled in the last 10 years and is growing faster than the population of the city. It registered an all-time high peak demand at 6,006 mW in June last year, which was higher than the combined highest ever peaks of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chandigarh. According to Central Electricity Authority projects, Delhi’s peak demand for electricity will cross 6,300 mW this year and 12,000 mW by 2021.